


Much Ado

by vayleen



Category: Sailor Moon - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gen, Silver Millennium Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-08-18
Updated: 2008-08-18
Packaged: 2017-12-08 19:39:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/765238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vayleen/pseuds/vayleen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Prince, do plants really grow without magic on Earth?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Much Ado

Endymion gazed at the rest of the court dining below from his seated position on the dais. It was truly a splendid affair. How the small satellite he gazed upon in the sky could have a palace this big, with this large a court, was truly remarkable. He had never seen so many splendidly dressed people all in one room in his life.

Endymion sighed, refraining from shifting in his seat. He looked at the table closest to the dais, and the eight young men and women seated tersely around it. Well, the men were young. He had no idea how old the women might be. If their ages were anything close to the Queen next to him, they may as well be immortal. As for the Princess to the right of the Queen, she was supposed to be over four hundred and fifty years old but she-

“Prince, do plants really grow without magic on Earth?”

-didn’t look a day over ten.

Endymion tensed, just as he’d been doing through the first and second course. Between courses, the Moon Princess stuffed as many questions her curiosity could come up with towards him until another serving came and she had to stop out of propriety. She already had to lean over the table and talk over her mother to ask him.

“Now, now, my dear,” the Queen said, “You’ve been asking our guest questions nonstop since dinner started.”

Serenity’s eyes became huge and sorrowful. “Oh! I haven’t been bothering him, have I?”

Instantly, Selene changed her tone. “Of course not, darling, the Prince doesn’t mind. Do you?” she asked, turning to Endymion.

Endymion knew there was only one correct answer. “Not at all, Princess.”

Relief flooded the Princess’s young face.

“There, you see? Now, I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we switch places, Serenity, and you can talk with the Prince without leaning over the table like that.”

“You don’t have to trouble yourself, Majesty-” Endymion said, with something close to horror building up in his voice.

But Serenity clapped her hands in glee. Servants approached the table to help the monarchs into their new places. Serenity settled into the large, ornate chair to Endymion’s right, looking even smaller than she did before. Once there, the girl was suddenly shy, looking up at him pensively, and worrying the napkin in her lap.

She really did have remarkable blue eyes. They were so light, they gleamed almost as silver as her hair.

Taking pity on her, Endymion smiled and reminded her of her questions. “You were asking me about plants.”

Startled, she looked back up at him, and blushed. “I-I just wanted to know about the flowers. I love flowers. We grow them up here but we have to use sectioned gardens and they’re all enchanted.”

“We don’t need the same kind of magic on Earth. Flowers, grass and trees-”

“I’ve never seen a tree,” Serenity interrupted wistfully.

Endymion smiled again, this time more genuine. “Yes… well… they all grow using only the power of rain, sun and soil. I suppose in a way that could be magic.”

Serenity grinned at him. “Yes, that could be magic after all.”

* * *

Nephrite swallowed the laughter building up in his throat and chased it with a large gulp of wine. Endymion looked practically miserable as the Queen and her daughter switched places, putting the Princess next to him. Nephrite felt for him. She was a chatty little thing and Endymion had never been a man of conversation.

_“It appears Master is having the time of his life,”_ Nephrite said telepathically to Kunzite, the only one who could hear him. _“Selene Queen and Princess Serenity have switched places.”_

Kunzite could not answer Nephrite telepathically, but he nodded slightly to let the other man know he was heard. Nephrite knew it frustrated his superior that he was sitting where he was, the most inconvenient angle to watch Prince Endymion - he’d have to look directly over his right shoulder. His only consolation was he was the closest to the Prince should anything happen, and Nephrite, sitting directly across from Kunzite, could see Endymion perfectly.

_“Poor man,”_ he continued, _“she’ll talk his ear off until he’s gone completely mad. He’ll be completely unmanageable tonight.”_ Nephrite thought of Endymion lying down, moaning despondently with a headache, with Kunzite nursing him faithfully at his side.

Kunzite glared at him.

Nephrite was kidding, of course, as he was a jokester at heart, but was startled when the woman next to him covered her sudden laughter with a clattering spoon and a lousy cough.

Horrified, Nephrite realized the Martian Senshi could hear him.

He quickly cut off the channel he had open to talk to Kunzite, furious with himself, and angry that he cast Prince Endymion in such an unfavorable light. He knew he should care that he insulted their Princess as well, but he was feeling childish enough not to.

The Martian in question turned and glared smugly at him, her violet eyes glittering as much as the red jewel in her tiara. Despite their formal dinner wear, the tiaras were the only things showing the Senshi were fully powered up.

When she didn’t look away, Nephrite turned to her with an annoyed smile.

“Is there something I can do for you, Sailor Mars?” he asked, with false gentlemanly grace.

“I was just wondering,” she said, “did you enjoy the soup?”

“The soup was perfect, thanks for asking,” he answered. He didn’t know which was worse – small talk or smug Martian princesses.

When Sailor Mars quirked an eyebrow, Nephrite realized she might be reading his thoughts, and angrily built a makeshift barrier around his mind. The woman chuckled and reached for her wine glass, ending the conversation.

* * *

_“Oh dear, I think I might have offended the poor thing.”_

_“It’s your own fault for giving yourself away. I wish I could see what made you lose your composure.”_

_“No you don’t,”_ Sailor Mars said, _“Or at least, I don’t want you to. It made your new beaux appear unsavory and I don’t want to deal with your moping.”_

Venus gave her an annoyed look from across the table. _“He’s not my ‘beaux’.”_

_“But you like him. And with your charm, any other man would be on their knees before you, begging for your love.”_ Sailor Mars knew she was hitting a nerve but she chose to do so anyway. Sailor Venus could use the occasional blow to her ego.

The Venusian huffed, and stared thoughtfully into her champagne glass. True, the quiet man to her right seemed impervious to her beauty. He was almost stoic, but Sailor Venus could feel the deep affection he felt for the men he grew up with and the admirable devotion he felt for his sovereign. He wasn’t stoic at all. He had a vast emotional reservoir, and had access to it, but none of her flirting lines had any effect on him.

It was driving her crazy.

“Lady Venus, what would you recommend for the dessert course?”

Sailor Venus refrained from rolling her eyes, before turning to the man on her left. “I would recommend the iced sweet cream, Sir Zoisite,” Venus said sweetly.

Zoisite marked his menu and returned it to the one of the servers bringing them their main dish.

He had been maneuvering for her attention throughout the whole meal. Sailor Mars had explained it was because he had never seen a Venusian before, and was struck to find the rumors about their fabled beauty to be true. And he thought he had finally found a woman as beautiful as he was.

Venus, who normally delighted in people finding her beautiful, found Zoisite annoying strictly because he was purposefully distracting her from Kunzite.

“I must say, Sailor Venus,” Zoisite continued when the servers left, “I find the architecture and art in the Luna palace to be just as exquisite as our books said they were.”

“I’m pleased to hear that.”

“I’ve always been an admirer of Lunarian and Venusian art,” Zoisite continued. “And Martian I suppose. Though Martian isn’t as elegant or simplistic in its beauty as Lunarian art. But at least it’s not as frivolous and barbaric as what Jovians call ‘great art’.”

Shocked, Venus glanced at Sailor Jupiter on Zoisite’s right. The lady was doing her best to pretend she hadn’t heard Zoisite’s remark, but was squeezing the stem of her wine glass so hard her fingers were turning white. Venus was about to try and defuse the situation when a quiet, but firm, voice spoke up.

“I find art to be a cultural value rather than an aesthetic one,” Sailor Mercury said. It was the first word she spoke for the entire meal, drawing the attention of the whole table. “Art is a marker of human achievement, an icon for the history and culture of a society, and should be judged thusly.”

“A noble thought, milady,” Zoisite answered, “but if such works weren’t judged even marginally by their aesthetic value, what could one say about that culture except the positive? There would be no absolutes to judge from.”

Mercury gazed briefly into her water glass before answering. “Perhaps the judge in question shouldn’t limit him or herself to only one ideal of beauty.” She looked pointedly at Zoisite when she finished, her blue eyes slightly betraying her disapproval. “I imagine that would lead to a very vain and narrow sort of life.”

Zoisite flushed angrily and swallowed. “Of course, you’re right, Sailor Mercury. A vain life indeed,” he conceded, doing a poor job on concealing his anger and embarrassment. He stabbed a fork into his plate of prime rib, only to find he had already finished it, and was stabbing at an empty plate.

Venus was surprised to see the fleeting look of admiration on Jadeite’s face when Sailor Mercury won the debate. If she were to describe one of the shitennou as stoic, it would have been the cold, quiet man sitting between Mercury and Mars.

Venus pursed her lips thoughtfully.

* * *

Across from her, Nephrite was troubled by Zoisite’s inappropriate comments, and was concerned about the tall Jovian to his right. By Zoisite’s standards, she was too tall and well built for him to consider lovely. But Nephrite she was very pretty, from the curly dark red hair, to the legs that went on forever. Perhaps he would ask her to favor him with the first dance during tomorrow's ball to make up for his friend’s rude behavior.

“I noticed you ordered the sweet cream, Sir Zoisite,” Sailor Jupiter said, with a brilliant smile. “Please try a bit of this fruit tart. The berries can only be found in the deepest regions of the largest Jovian rainforest.”

Without waiting for an answer, Sailor Jupiter used her knife and fork to move a bite of her tart to Zoisite’s dessert plate. She moved in just the right way so that her hand brushed his wrist. The small jolt of electricity made his hair stand up just a little.

Reflexively, Zoisite lifted a hand to fix his hair, but stopped himself. He turned to Sailor Venus to see if she was watching. The Venusian seemed absolutely engrossed in her own fruit tart, smiling strangely.

“Thank you, Sailor Jupiter,” Zoisite said, through the gritted teeth of his smile.

Nephrite swallowed his laughter with another gulp of wine. Maybe he didn’t have to worry about Sailor Jupiter at all.

Their coffee was interrupted when the Prince and Princess approached their table. Princess Serenity was blushing happily on Endymion’s arm, giving her skin an attractive rosy hue. Endymion was smiling indulgently at the deceivingly young princess, but his eyes were sparkling with amusement in a way Nephrite had never seen before.

“Her Highness has graciously offered me a tour of the Lunarian palace’s gardens,” Prince Endymion explained. “We’re here to see if anyone would like to join us.”

“I would be honored my liege, your highness,” Kunzite said, standing up to bow at each of them in turn. Serenity gave him a grin that positively sparkled and Kunzite could only smile back at such coruscating brilliance.

“Then if you would be my escort, Sir Kunzite,” Sailor Venus said, rising from the table. “I must go, of course, being the head of the Princess’s guard.”

Kunzite bowed in acquisition, and offered Lady Venus his arm. She, in turn, gave him a lovely look as she accepted it, but did not get nearly as warm a smile as Princess Serenity received. Much to Venus’s chagrin.

Not to be ignored, and upset that Kunzite was sweeping Lady Venus away, Zoisite immediately stood. “I should very much like to join you myself. I have great interest in seeing the gardens.”

“Then I shall ask you to be my escort,” Sailor Mercury said. She daintily dabbed her lips with her napkin before rising and approaching Zoisite with a knowing smile. Zoisite would have to choose between not going and saving his pride, or offering to escort Lady Mercury anyway, so as not to insult the Prince and Princess. Of course, he chose to escort Sailor Mercury.

If Nephrite knew her better, he might have thought Sailor Mercury was going only to keep Zoisite in check.

An annoyed look crossed over Jadeite’s normally neutral face when Lady Mercury left. Nephrite watched this with interest. Normally Jadeite couldn’t care less about Zoisite’s womanizing, so this was an interesting twist of events.

“As so many of us are going, then I will as well,” Jadeite said, rising. “Care to accompany me, Sailor Mars?” Jadeite said to the woman seated next to him, offering his hand before she could say yes or no.

Sailor Mars flushed angrily. If Nephrite were to ask Venus about it, she would say Sailor Mars knew perfectly well Jadeite had turned to her out of convenience and only so that he could keep an eye on Mercury and Zoisite. But Lady Mars wanted to keep an eye on both Princess Serenity and Sailor Venus, so she was inclined to accept the escort.

“Thank you, Sir Jadeite, I would be delighted,” she answered, with sweet venom. She rose from her chair and accepted his arm.

Nephrite turned to the Jovian next to him. “It seems we are being left behind, unless my lady would honor me by accepting my escort.” Nephrite realized a moment too late that he might have insulted Sailor Jupiter by inadvertently saying she was his last resort, and mentally hit himself.

But Sailor Jupiter gave him an honest smile, her green eyes glowing. “I would be most grateful, Sir Nephrite,” she answered.

They stood and made to follow the others. It was an unusual procession, ready for Princess Serenity’s animated tour of the gardens and Prince Endymion’s rare and amused laughter.


End file.
